I fellow I work with showed me these two images on Monday after having checked the trail cams on his lease near Covington, Louisiana. He asked me what I thought this animal was. It didn’t immediately jump out on me, but when I saw the curved legs and back, the first thing to pop into my mind was “BEAR”. That was exactly what he thought it was too.

Although he didn’t feel like these images would stand up in court, I did show them to one of my editors, and he mentioned that a Louisiana Black Bear had been spotted around the Tammany Trace not too long ago. Apparently, it was scaring joggers and bike riders by showing up along the trail.

What do you think? Is this a bear or not?

Back Off
These hunters have discovered that food plots are exactly where you don’t want to hunt this month. by Chris Ginn

Terminal Tide Lines
Pay attention to the water movement, particularly on a falling tide, and you’ll catch more speckled trout this winter. by Chris Ginn

Chris Ginn Creative Outdoors had the following credits in the September, 2011 issue of Louisiana Sportsman:

Take Home Angler: Allen Dupont – This angler and his two buddies fish the east side of the Mississippi River because it has an endless number of quality spots.

Steel Cage Match – This Rigolets hotspot draws quite a crowd because it’s so productive this time of year.

Chris Ginn Creative Outdoors has the following credits in the August 2011 issue of Louisiana Sportsman:

Air Raid – Images for Air Raid story about wade fishing Gosier Island by way of a sea plane.

Postage Stamp Plots III – One day’s dozer work radically changed this little slice of Washington Parish.

Take Home Angler: Scott Castaing – Croaker fishing may be out of fashion, but this Slidell angler says’s it’s hip to be square.

Chris Ginn Creative Outdoors had the following publishing credits in the July 2011 issue of Louisiana Sportsman Magazine:

Burn Hack: Don’t worry about what it means. Just get down to Raccoon Island now because the burn hack is on!

Take Home Angler – Dr. Sam Field: This Cocodrie angler knows the speckled-trout action in Terrebonne Parish is as good as it’s ever been.

Chris Ginn Creative Outdoors had the following publishing credits in the June 2011 issue of Louisiana Sportsman Magazine:

Full Tanks, Full Coolers: Leave your gas card at home, and take a short boat ride to the fish-filled waters of Lake Boudreaux.

Take Home Angler – Marty Duhon: Fierce winds are the only thing that can shut down a Delacroix bite this time of year.

Chris Ginn Creative Outdoors had the following publishing credits in the May 2011 issue of Louisiana Sportsman Magazine:

Rate of Return: Trade in your Carolina rig for a drop-shot rig this time of year, and you’ll feel like a Wall Street insider.

Take Home Angler – Greg Sonnier: Wading has gotten extremely popular on Calcasieu Lake, but fishing out of a kayak is much more effective.

Out of the Ordinary: These bass-fishing techniques sound loony, but they produce plenty bites.

North Louisiana Freshwater Cover Shot

Chris Ginn Creative Outdoors had the following publishing credit in the April 2011 issue of Louisiana Sportsman Magazine:

Take Home Angler – Wesley Miller: This angler follows the fantastic crappie bite from Bayou Dorcheat into Lake Bistineau.

I went back to check out the progress this afternoon after even more rain, and I was surprised at what I found. Three deer moved through the plot on Friday evening and basically wiped out over half of the soybeans and iron/clay peas. Since these plants were in the vulnerable 2-leaf stage, they are now gone for good.

What really amazed me was how quickly the deer demolished part of the plot. The image below was captured at 8:27. Notice all the small green plants in the part of the plot right below the deer.

Washington Parish deer munching on some young soybeans.

Based on this image taken only four minutes later, these three deer had nipped off the top two leaves of all the plants that were in what is now the barren part of the image. Look right behind the rear legs of the deer to the right.

Washington Parish deer eating young soybean plants.

I know people that have been doing this a long time won’t find this very exciting, but I’m only three years into managing my land for deer hunting, and this is my first year doing summer food plots. Based on my findings so far, it definitely won’t be my last.

You can read more about my Washington Parish deer management efforts in the August Louisiana Sportsman in an article titled Postage Stamp Plots III.

The opening of the Bonnet Carre Spillway didn’t seem to have as much of an effect on the fishing in the eastern part of Lake Pontchartrain as was anticipated. Trout continued to bite out in Lake Borgne until not too long ago.

But even when fresh water pushed trout off those rigs, they still bit over at Half Moon Island and 9-Mile Bay.

All of that has changed for the better in the last week or two, and Chas Champagne with Dockside Bait and Tackle in Slidell started putting up reports and pics of some big trout that were starting to hit the scales at his marina.

The first indication that the fishing was picking up was an 8.14-pound trout Dan Schmidt caught on the weekend of June 25. Schmidt followed up that fish with a 7.84-pound STAR-leading trout two weeks later.

“The big trout are back in numbers in some of the area’s most commonly fished spots,” Champagne reported back on the June 11. “We had the most trout come through Dockside this weekend since the spill… big ones too including Dan’s Star leader trout.”

And one of the most commonly fished spots that holds big trout this time of year is the CSX Rigolets Pass bridge (the old L&N) that’s sandwiched between the Pearl River’s East Pass and Catfish Point where the Rigolets dumps into Lake Borgne.

Capt. Eric Dumas has also been making lots of trips to the CSX bridge, and he had an opening for me last Friday (July 15) and again on Tuesday (July 19).

Read the rest…

This was originally posted at www.louisianasportsman.com on July 6, 2011.

I’m not a huge fan of flying, but when Capt. Theophile Bourgeois invited me and Louisiana Sportsman editor Todd Masson to fly with him in a seaplane out to Gosier Island to wade-fish for speckled trout I knew I would have to cast my fears aside, especially after Bourgeois texted me pictures of the trout he had been catching.

Masson and I met up with Bourgeois and Lyle Panepinto of Southern Seaplane Inc. at Bourgeois’ Cajun Vista in Lafitte. We loaded our spinning rods in the back of the Cessna 185, and Masson and I climbed into our spots behind Bourgeois and Panepinto.

The funny thing about flying is that I don’t like the thought of flying, but every time I actually fly I just love being in the air. Just a few minutes later, we were landing at the Southern Seaplane airport in Belle Chasse to get some fuel.

Then it was back in the air again. We flew over the Caernarvon Diversion Canal and Delacroix Island toward Breton Sound. As we flew over Delacroix and Hopedale, Masson and I had fun picking out places that were familiar to us like Lake Amadee, the MRGO rocks and Mozambique Point.

Read the rest…